Eleven thousand years ago , the humanity looked different .
Not only did luxuriant forests exist where there are now comeupance , grasslands where there are now coral reefs , humans had n’t yet begun building many things . Of naturally , we ca n’t ever really know just what our ascendant were up to tens of thousands of years ago , but one stead — the archaeological site Göbekli Tepe — can give us a few clues .
Göbekli Tepe , a monument along the communication channel ofStonehengesituated in the Germuş mass range of southeast Turkey , was discoveredby a team of American and Turkish surveyors in the 1960s , but their uncovering of limestone slabs and flint artefact was n’t recognized for what it was until 1994 , when a German archeologist namedKlaus Schmidtstepped in and recognise its implication . It is a mysterious land site to this day , part because we can make so few assumptions about the mass who built it .
" repository , generally speak , are a particular model of architecture stand out due to their sizing and/or the travail necessary to create them , " says Jens Notroff , an archeologist who has work on theGöbekli Tepe Projectsince 2006 , in an email . " Göbekli Tepe is a remarkable example in this context since the memorial there mark the first yet known case of monumental architecture , and that they were constructed in a ethnic context of still highly roving hunting watch - gatherers . "
A Mobile Hunter-gatherer Society
From what archaeologists have been able to surmise from the Göbekli Tepe site itself , the hoi polloi who built it were highly wandering huntsman - gatherer — there ’s no grounds that they kept livestock , implant their own food for thought or made alloy dick . This jive with what we know of the people in the other Neolithic :
" Göbekli Tepe is from a period called ' Pre - Pottery Neolithic , ' which intend before the invention of ceramic vessels , " allege Notroff . " We acknowledge settlement site and their architecture from the period and neighborhood which were inhabited for a farseeing time . patently , the buildings unearth at Göbekli Tepe do not really resemble this ' typical ' settlement computer architecture , but rather a peculiar type of building see as ' exceptional aim ' communal buildings . "
Was It a Temple or a Home?
" Special use " refers to a case of social system that was n’t regularly inhabited : a tabernacle , a sanctuary or a place for spread out groups to gather at appointed times . agree to Notroff , the current interpretation of Göbekli Tepe as a repository rather than a house does not prevail out inhabitancy of the site at some stop or the beingness of other computer architecture nearby that has yet to be reveal . However , Göbekli Tepe was build at the very top of an peril hill , 3 miles ( 5 kilometers ) from the nearest springtime , which earn its medical prognosis as a homestead miserable — plus , the land site has n’t yet yielded cookery hearths , rubbish pits or any of the usual signs that ancient people conducted their daily business there .
It seems Göbekli Tepe was a work in progress for at least a couple thousand age , but from what archeologist have concluded , the legal age of it was built during three chief periods . The site itself comprises around 200 limestone pillars , situated in 20 circles , not all of which have yet been excavated . The ring are lay out likewise , with two larger T - shaped tower in the eye , surrounded by a work bench studded with myopic , smaller pillars face the two stones in the middle . The tall pillar are 16 feet ( 4.8 meters ) tall , and they consider between seven and 10 tons ( 6 and 9 measured tons ) each .
The pillar themselves are covered with all manner of etching , most of which depict animals — but not always the animals you ’d inevitably expect . In addition to game animal like gazelle and boars , the pillars of Göbekli Tepe depict fox , snakes , lions , birds like Grus and vultures , as well as wanderer and scorpions — in fact , the pictograph seem to be dominated by creature that would n’t have been particularly good to exhaust . Some of the pillar themselves seem to represent larger - than - life anthropomorphic sculpture : They each have a faceless head , weapons system , a knock and a breechcloth .
" While the early monumentality of the site is unquestionably impressive , to me it ’s the social import at the doorstep of one of the crucial points in the account of our specie is what create this research so riveting , " say Notroff .
Around 10 millennium B.C.E. when Göbekli Tepe was first constructed , humans were already starting to work up semi - permanent settlements , although they did n’t set out transitioning from hunting and cumulate to agriculture and keep livestock for another match thousand years . But Göbekli Tepe show what might be a bridge between two path of lifespan . Some of the enclosures provide grounds of huge meals , which might mean ritualized feasting took place there .
Although we may never know what really went on at Göbekli Tepe — some people trust it was a humanskull cult ! — it ’s probable that it was a office built and maintained by a hunting watch - collector company to satisfy up , trade entropy , telephone exchange goodness , find wedlock married person , share life hack and make friends who could help out later in a pinch .
And if theywereperforming skull cult ceremony , what better agency to ramp up community ?
